A Seljuk-era hamam is being restored with attention to preserving its authentic qualities. The Turkish bath will be opened as a tourist attraction

The hamam is located in the Sofular neighborhood and has stood there for years without any maintenance. The current project aims to restore the hamam while preserving its original characteristics. AA photo

Turkish bath still standing in Aksaray from the era of Seljuk Sultan Kılıçarslan will be restored and opened for tourism.

The hamam is located in the Sofular neighborhood and has stood there for years without any maintenance. The current project aims to restore the hamam while preserving its authentic and original characteristics.

Aksaray Mayor Nevzat Palta and the curator of the Aksaray Museum, Yusuf Altın, told Anatolia news agency that they had signed a protocol to start the project to display the hamam and the artifacts within it.

Restoration project

Speaking during the signing ceremony, Palta said the second Kılıçarslan-era hamam would be a tourist attraction in Aksaray.

“We have been working in this area, and we will try to restore this hamam. We have started the work,” Palta said, noting that the necessary permissions had been obtained from the ministry. After these bureaucratic procedures are completed, the excavation work will begin. He said the preservation and protection of the excavations were very important, and that academics including Professor Osman Nuri Dülgerler, Professor Haşim Karpuz and Professor Osman Eravşar would be involved in the excavation work.

Dülgerler, a professor in the Faculty of Engineering & Architecture at Selçuk University, is a consultant on the project. He said the hamam belongs to a very early era and until 1964 was still in use. “However, later on it was abandoned. With the excavation and cleaning process, the hamam will become as it was before.” This will be a new cultural artifact for the community in Aksaray, he added.

The municipality will finance the hamam project and the museum management department will also provide its full support to the excavation work.

The Seljuks were a very important civilization that began when Turks entered Anatolia, and left significant cultural and art pieces behind throughout the centuries.

The Seljuks originated from the Qynyk branch of Oghuz Turks who in the ninth century lived on the periphery of the Muslim world north of the Caspian and Aral seas in their Yabghu Khaganate of the Oghuz confederacy, located in the Kazakh Steppe of Turkestan. In 985, the Seljuk clan split off from the bulk of the Tokuz-Oghuz. They set up camp on the right bank of the lower Syr Darya river (also known as the Jaxartes), where they converted to Islam. The Seljuks mixed with the local population and adopted the Persian culture and language in the following decades.

The House of Seljuk was a Turkish Sunni Muslim dynasty that, after gradually adopting Persian culture, contributed to the Turko-Persian tradition of medieval West and Central Asia. The Seljuks established both the Great Seljuk Empire and Sultanate of Rum, which at their height stretched from Anatolia through Persia.